Tashkent R2: Morozevich strikes again, takes sole lead

11/23/2012 – Although the second round had more than its fair share of draws, they weren't without a struggle. Perhaps the closest of the non-winners was Svidler against Gelfand when he penetrated to the 7th with his rook, only to withdraw it and the pressure. Morozevich delighted his fans by outplaying Caruana in a non-mainline Berlin endgame to take sole lead. Report with analysis by GM Romain Edouard.

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The second stage of the 2012-2013 FIDE Grand Prix Series is taking place from
November 21 to December 5th in the Gallery of Fine Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The games start at 14:00h
local time (= 10:00h CET, 13:00h Moscow, 04:00 a.m. New York). The tournament
has a prize fund of 240,000 Euros.

Round two report

Round 2 on Friday,
23.11.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

½-½

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Wang Hao

2737

½-½

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

½-½

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Leko Peter

2732

½-½

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Svidler Peter

2747

½-½

Gelfand Boris

2751

Morozevich Alexander

2748

1-0

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Although the second round of the Tashkent Grand Prix had more than its fair
share of draws, they weren't without a struggle. While some of the draws were
fairly dry, others did teeter on the edge of victory without actually achieving
it.

Of those, perhaps the closest of the non-winners was Peter Svidler (above)
against Boris Gelfand when he penetrated to the seventh with his rook with a
nasty advantage, only to withdraw it for unclear reasons, and thus the pressure.

Alexander Morozevich (above left) delighted his fans by outplaying Fabiano
Caruana in an endgame resulting from a Ruy Lopez Berlin, though not the usual
mainline. As our GM commentator points out, in spite of his excellent play,
White was unable to force a winning position without a fatal mistake. That said,
it is very much the nature of Morozevich’s play, to keep the pressure
at the maximum until even the hardiest opponent buckles.

Leko-Mamedyarov: The Super-GM from Baku revealed at the press
conference that his alarm rang 16 times (at 15 minute intervals), before he
managed to wake up. It was already too late to prepare for the main lines, he
said, so he went for rather unusual 3…c6. As a result Shakh killed the
preparation of Peter Leko, who had spent a lot of time checking variations against
the Caro-Kann. He spent too much time calculating all lines and ended up with
seven seconds for five moves before the time control.

Even Moro seems impressed by Peter Leko's performance

"I remembered the game by Anatoly Karpov in Linares," Peter said,
"where he had had only seven seconds for seven moves in a very complicated
position but managed to make the best moves. And when time trouble had passed
he spent another 53 minutes calculating the pawn ending and managed to draw."
Peter followed the example and after the first time trouble, despite Black’s
extra pawn White had enough compensation and and held the game. Shahriyar was
full of admiration and said there were only very few GMs in the world who were
capable of finding the best moves in so little time.

Wang Hao-Dominguez: As Wang Hao pointed out during the press
conference his preparation finished after 8…c6, a move he had missed during
his home preparation. The position became quite sharp but both opponents played
creatively and it’s not easy to suggest any improvements for both sides.

Perhaps, the best chance for White was to take b4 pawn on move 29th hoping
to convert the game into the endgame with extra pawn (four against three on
the kingside). Later on the b4 pawn was advanced and became the real danger,
so the Chinese player finished the game with perpetual check.

Kasimdzhanov-Ponomariov: Rustam Kasimdzhanov was not ready
for a discussion in the Breyer Variation, which could have happened in the game,
so he chose this line in order to avoid some possible variations.

Rustam feared that Black had to face some problems in the middle game, but
it didn’t really happened as massive exchanges followed and the was converted
into a drawish ending.

Ruslan Ponomarion proposed 15. Ra5 instead of Ra7, which could give more promising
chances for White.

Replay the games of this round on our Javascript board

Standings after two rounds

All photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

Round 1 on Thursday
22.11.2012 at 14:00

Morozevich Alexander

2748

1-0

Kamsky Gata

2762

Caruana Fabiano

2786

½-½

Svidler Peter

2747

Gelfand Boris

2751

½-½

Leko Peter

2732

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

½-½

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

½-½

Wang Hao

2737

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

0-1

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Round 2 on Friday,
23.11.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

½-½

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Wang Hao

2737

½-½

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

½-½

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Leko Peter

2732

½-½

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Svidler Peter

2747

½-½

Gelfand Boris

2751

Morozevich Alexander

2748

1-0

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Round 3 on Saturday
24.11.2012 at 14:00

Caruana Fabiano

2786

-

Kamsky Gata

2762

Gelfand Boris

2751

-

Morozevich Alexander

2748

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

-

Svidler Peter

2747

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

-

Leko Peter

2732

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

-

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Karjakin Sergey

2775

-

Wang Hao

2737

Round 4 on Sunday
25.11.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

-

Wang Hao

2737

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

-

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Leko Peter

2732

-

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Svidler Peter

2747

-

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Morozevich Alexander

2748

-

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Caruana Fabiano

2786

-

Gelfand Boris

2751

Round 5 on Tuesday
27.11.2012 at 14:00

Gelfand Boris

2751

-

Kamsky Gata

2762

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

-

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

-

Morozevich Alexander

2748

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

-

Svidler Peter

2747

Karjakin Sergey

2775

-

Leko Peter

2732

Wang Hao

2737

-

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Round 6 on Wednesday
28.11.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

-

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Leko Peter

2732

-

Wang Hao

2737

Svidler Peter

2747

-

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Morozevich Alexander

2748

-

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Caruana Fabiano

2786

-

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Gelfand Boris

2751

-

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Round 7 on Thursday
29.11.2012 at 14:00

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

-

Kamsky Gata

2762

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

-

Gelfand Boris

2751

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

-

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Karjakin Sergey

2775

-

Morozevich Alexander

2748

Wang Hao

2737

-

Svidler Peter

2747

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

-

Leko Peter

2732

Round 8 on Friday
30.11.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

-

Leko Peter

2732

Svidler Peter

2747

-

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Morozevich Alexander

2748

-

Wang Hao

2737

Caruana Fabiano

2786

-

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Gelfand Boris

2751

-

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

-

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Round 9 on Sunday
2.12.2012 at 14:00

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

-

Kamsky Gata

2762

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

-

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Karjakin Sergey

2775

-

Gelfand Boris

2751

Wang Hao

2737

-

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

-

Morozevich Alexander

2748

Leko Peter

2732

-

Svidler Peter

2747

Round 10 on Monday
3.12.2012 at 14:00

Kamsky Gata

2762

-

Svidler Peter

2747

Morozevich Alexander

2748

-

Leko Peter

2732

Caruana Fabiano

2786

-

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

Gelfand Boris

2751

-

Wang Hao

2737

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

-

Karjakin Sergey

2775

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

-

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

Round 11 on Tuesday 4.12.2012 at 12:00

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2726

-

Kamsky Gata

2762

Karjakin Sergey

2775

-

Ponomariov Ruslan

2741

Wang Hao

2737

-

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

2764

Kasimdzhanov Rustam

2696

-

Gelfand Boris

2751

Leko Peter

2732

-

Caruana Fabiano

2786

Svidler Peter

2747

-

Morozevich Alexander

2748

Video Reports

Live video coverage with English language commentary is available on the player
above. There is also Russian commentary on the video
page of the tournament site.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

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